Moeran, Ernest John

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Moeran, Ernest John

In the Mountain Country for orchestra

SKU: 4421 Categories: ,

15,00 

Ernest John Moeran – In the Mountain Country

(b. Heston, Middx., 31 December 1894 – d. Kenmare, Co. Kerry, Ireland, 1 December 1950)

Preface Ernest John Smeed Moeran, better known as E. J. Moeran, and to his friends as ‘Jack’, came from an Irish-born father and a Norfolk-born mother. Although his father, Rev. J. W. W. Moeran, was of Dutch descent and barely lived in Ireland more than a year after his birth, his son was drawn to the land, both for recreation and inspiration. Likewise, his mother’s native Norfolk nurtured his love of the countryside and its music.

After attending Uppingham School where the music master was Robert Stearndale Bennett (grandson of Mendelssohn’s friend William), who was very influential, Moeran gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He entered it in 1913 but his studies were interrupted by war in which he served in the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment as a motor-cycle dispatch rider. On 3 May 1917 at Bullecourt he was badly injured by shrapnel in the head, some of which could never be removed. For the rest of his life he had a metal plate in his skull, and suffered pain and mood swings, often deep depression, and a descent into alcoholism.

He re-entered the Royal College in 1920 and became a pupil of John Ireland. He was part of a circle that included Ireland, Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), Harriet Cohen, and Arnold Bax. In the 1930s Moeran wrote a symphony that is regarded as one of the very finest British symphonies. He also composed concertos for violin and cello, several chamber works and songs.

He died unexpectedly whilst on holiday in Ireland, seemingly from a brain haemorrhage.

Moeran wrote In the Mountain Country after the war, while he was at the Royal College of Music. It was first played at the college in November 1921, and later in Bournemouth, conducted by Dan Godfrey. One person who was impressed by the young man’s composition was the conductor Hamilton Harty, who became a friend and promoter of Moeran’s music. The critic, composer and friend Philip Heseltine (‘Peter Warlock’) wrote of Moeran’s early rhapsodic works that they reflect “the influence of the surroundings in which he passed so many of his most impressionable years…” In this case the influence is Ireland without a doubt.

Phillip Brookes, 2020

For performance material please contact Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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